AN ABSTRACT HISTORY OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN

 

Introduction

 

The following abstract is based on the book, "Africa: A Biography of the Continent" by John Reader (1998). Mr. Reader was born in London in 1937. He lived and traveled in Africa for many years. Students are encouraged to read Mr. Reader's book. In the meantime, the following abstract highlights some of the most important trends and events detailed in his work--events that occurred in Africa from the geological birth of the continent almost 3 billion years ago to the mid-1990's. The student is directed to review the Definitions Companion and Questions Supplement accompanying this Abstract, which should make reading easier.

 

The Abstract

 

1. The Land

Africa is one of six of the world’s continents, along with North America, South America, Eurasia, Australia and Antarctica. It forms a landmass at the junction of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Africa comprises approximately 19 million square miles – an expanse that could comfortably fit the United States, China, Europe, India, Argentina, and New Zealand within its confines. Currently, Africa has a population of almost 750 million people. The environment and topography of the African continent is wide ranging. North Africa is dry and arid and dominated by deserts. Central and southern Africa is a combination of jungle, mountains and wide-open ranges called savanna.

 

One of the most significant sources of mineral wealth in the world is contained in the Bushveld Igneous Complex, a geological formation that is located over the northern rim of the Witwatersrand basin in South Africa. The Bushveld Igneous Complex was formed under the tremendous physical pressures that existed when the continents emerged from the earth’s crust and contains substantial veins of gold and diamonds. These resources have had a profound affect on African history.

 

2. The Cradle of Life

Recent research has shown Africa to be the cradle of life, providing the environment in which modern humans evolved. This development was closely associated with the changing environmental and climatic forces that, in turn, affected the food supply and the competition for survival.

The fossil record has shown that mankind began in Africa more than 4 million years ago. Modern theories of human evolution indicate that Man was a creature that lived on the African savanna. Evidence suggests that Man was a scavenger, preying on animals that migrated through the savanna and that bi-pedalism (walking on two feet) developed in response to dry and hot savanna conditions. Some experts believe that a key to human survival in such conditions was having an efficient way of preventing the brain from overheating. They propose that maintaining a certain body temperature favored standing upright as a way of minimizing the body's total exposure to the sun. Simply by standing upright, "bipedal hominids" could avoid 60% of direct solar radiation that they otherwise would have been exposed to. Increase in body size over several million years also reflected an increased ability to forage longer distances from critical sources of water. According to the fossil record, modern humans, known as homo sapiens sapiens, first appeared in Africa about 130,000 years ago.

 

Genetic evidence shows that humans began migrating from Africa to other parts of the world about 100,000 years ago. Although a massive continent in terms of size, Africa has had more limited potential for human biological growth. Straddling the equator, Africa has, generally, not experienced the kind of climate changes experienced in Europe and North America that have promoted the development of a more disease free environment. Even today, the climate of tropical Africa provides little relief from disease bearing insects. The year-round humid conditions also prevent the accumulation of fertile topsoils necessary for easy cultivation.

The pattern of long periods of cool and wet weather alternating with long periods of hot and dry weather has imposed significant limits on population growth. It has been shown, for example, that the ability to reproduce is directly related to the availability of basic nutrients from plants and animals. Historically, such nutrients have been less available in Africa as a result of the continent’s relatively extreme climate.

In general, Africa’s weather reached its most inhospitable point about 30,000 years ago, when global temperatures plunged, marking the beginning of the last ice age. As of 18,000 years ago, ice covered most of North America and Europe. After this point, climate conditions became less cold, dry and arid, becoming more favorable for human population growth and developments like settled agriculture.

3. Agriculture

The earliest evidence of agriculture in Africa ironically comes from sites in what is today the edge of the Sahara desert about 19,000 years ago. Domestication of animals in Africa began 8,000 to 9,000 years ago -- a relatively late development. Factors delaying animal domestication included that it was time consuming keeping and protecting animals and a drain on resources to have to provide them food and water, often in short supply. Promoting both settled agriculture and the domestication of animals was a technological breakthrough of great significance to the ancient world, occurring in Africa about 9,500 years ago -- the development of pottery. By using pots, people could more easily store and boil food. Animal domestication led to the development of pastoralism -- a life-style centered on the production of animal products like meat and milk.

Another important technological development that occurred in Africa about 3,000 years ago, was the smelting of iron. Iron smelting, which led to advances in the making of agricultural tools and weapons, also led to the consumption of massive quantities of charcoal. Making charcoal required the felling and burning of large numbers of trees, creating vast clearings. These clearings encouraged large-scale cattle herding.

 

4. The Beginnings of Trade

Recent studies have shown that the economic influence of the Egyptian state in North Africa (about 2,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C.) did not penetrate sub-Saharan Africa and that cultural, economic and political developments in this region were indigenous (not introduced from cultures outside of the sub-Saharan region). During the period of the Roman Empire (from 1^st century B.C. to the 5^th century A.D.), trade began expanding into the sub-Saharan region. African trade was basic, including such items as ivory, spices and slaves. Before long, haphazard trade became more permanent with the development of trading centers.

5. Aksum

A Roman businessman who traveled to the sub-Sahara in the 1^st century A.D. kept a log called Periplus Maris Erythraei ("The Circumnavigation of the Red Sea"). In the Periplus, there is a description of a vibrant trading center called Adulis that has since been identified as occupying the same site as the modern day harbor of Massawa on the Ethiopian coast. Inland from Adulis rises a high plateau, which has had a cool, wet climate. It was here on the Ethiopian highlands that there developed the sophisticated trading civilization of Aksum, which reached its highest point of development around the 4th and 5th centuries A.D.

Persian leaders in this period described Aksum as one of four of the most important commercial centers of the ancient world along with Rome, Persia and China. At its geographic height, the Aksum civilization stretched from the edge of the Sahara in the West, across the Red Sea, to the inner Arabian Desert. The Aksumites were responsible for Africa's only native script, Ge'ez, the origin of the modern Ethiopian language. The Aksum civilization traded with Egypt, the Eastern Mediterranean and Arabia. Aksum also minted the sub-Sahara's first coinage, which was a principal medium of exchange for trade in the region.

In about the 3rd Century A.D., the King of Aksum converted to Orthodox Christianity (Aksum became a Christian civilization in the 4^th Century A.D., not long after Rome), an event that was subsequently to shape the culture and history of the city-state and, eventually, the nation of Ethiopia. Aksum culture was also influenced by the cultures of adjacent regions like the Southern Arabian Kingdom of Saba (which reached its height in influence in the 8^th Century B.C.). Saba is said to have introduced certain written scripts that were developed further in Ethiopia. Although archeologists have ascribed the introduction of the ox-driven plough to the Sabians, linguists’ studying the Ethiopian language have suggested that the innovation was indigenous to Ethiopia. The civilization of Aksum and subsequent Ethiopian kingdoms were also the source of the region's first literate societies. These social and economic developments were directly encouraged by the highland climate, which favored settled agriculture.

The cool, wet environment was critical, for example, for the cultivation of one of the earliest grains to be farmed in the region -- Teff. Although wheat and barley were also introduced, and there were advances in technology, e.g. the plough, irrigation and terracing of hillsides -- which improved agricultural production, Teff was the preferred crop.

The Aksum civilization, as successful as it was, evidenced decline by 500 A.D. Archeological evidence has shown a marked decline in the size of monuments and architecture, suggesting a loss of wealth. There is evidence that the landscape became denuded (lacking trees and other vegetation) which resulted from the extensive burning of charcoal for iron, brick and pottery making. Although, for a time, this process opened up more land for cultivation, in the long run, it led to over-cropping and erosion. The wet, rainy environment further encouraged nutrients to become leached out of fertile soils. Problems with food production followed, making it difficult for Aksum to sustain its population which, inevitably, declined. By 750 A.D., the conditions of the region further deteriorated when the climate became dryer. By 800 A.D., Aksum almost ceased to exist; its population having disbursed to other areas where food production was more promising, especially to central Ethiopia where was laid the foundation of the Ethiopian state that emerged in the 13^th century A.D.

6. The Niger River Valley

The Niger River Valley also produced a trading culture, but much less centralized than in Aksum, which was governed by a king. While Aksum represents sub-Saharan Africa's first city-state, the history of the Niger River Valley shows a completely opposite development that modern scholars have described as being wholly indigenous. At Jenna-Jeno in modern day Mali, excavations have shown evidence of a sophisticated urban civilization that existed almost 1000 years before Arab traders arrived from North Africa. The region's geography and climate, which encouraged fertile soils, created great potential to sustain large populations. At its height, around 800 A.D., Jenna-Jeno had a population of almost 27,000.

Frequent and severe flooding of the Niger River caused the population to develop a complicated system of storing and distributing food. This system required a high degree of specialization, i.e. people performed specific tasks that would benefit the community as a whole. Cooperation became more critical than coercion to keeping the system operating. Herdsman, fisherman and farmers cooperated in a manner that enhanced the population's ability to deal with the unpredictable environment.

Studies have shown that the populations that resided in the Niger River Valley were diverse, including many different ethnic and language groups. Yet, the archeological record has shown that the region experienced little in the way of conflict, owing apparently to the complex system of specialization and mutual dependence, which promoted peace among groups. Myth and symbolism emphasized expectations of mutual obligations and duties, reinforcing the spirit of cooperation. What is critical in terms of African history is that the development of complicated societies did not necessarily require the additional development of hierarchies and centralized states. Reader has described the process as one of "complexification" as opposed to "centralization."

7. How Disease Has Affected Africa

One hundred thousand years ago, the population of Africa was approximately 1 million persons. The population that had emigrated from Africa numbered a few hundred persons. By 1500 A.D., however, the out of Africa population reached approximately 300 million. The African population, meanwhile, rose to merely 47 million. The dramatic disparity between the African population and the out of Africa population is in no small part due to the fact that those who remained in Africa confronted a whole host of parasites and plagues that the emigrant population had left behind. For example, related to the boom and bust cycles of human population growth was the ebb and flow of the tsetse fly population. The tsetse fly communicates the notoriously debilitating and deadly disease – sleeping sickness. The tsetse fly only exists in tropical Africa and over time has affected a substantial amount of potentially productive land, retarding agricultural productivity. Other parasites have included hookworm, bilharzia, and malaria. Human exposure to these diseases increased with settled agriculture and cattle herding. With rural populations sapped by disease and enduring difficult planting conditions, urbanization, the development of cities, progressed relatively slowly, i.e. limited productive capacities of rural populations made it difficult to support city-dwellers who, themselves, were not food producers. Urbanization accelerated following European contact and the introduction through foreign trade of new sources of food like maize and cassava. Today, AIDS (Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome) has become a significant threat to the health and productivity of Africans, affecting up to 30% of the adult population in some regions.

8. Ukara

A more modern example of a decentralized community is that located on Ukara, an island in Lake Victoria that is part of present-day Tanzania. Ukara is thought to have been an 18^th century refuge for persons fleeing the slave trade. Its relative success has been directly related to the more benign environmental conditions that have prevailed on the island. From the beginning, these conditions allowed the Ukaran population to develop an extensive irrigation system, employ a crop rotation system, and use fertilizer, like manure, to improve soil fertility. Allowing for these developments has been the island’s virtually disease free environment. For example, there is no tsetse fly infestation, or infestation of other parasites that prey on cattle. There are also no serious predators on the island, making it easier to protect livestock. Finally, Ukara has no elephant population. On the continent, elephants have been responsible for substantial crop damage, and have been known to destroy the food supply of entire communities. In the 19^th century, at the height of the colonial period, the so called "elephant problem" caused colonial authorities to authorize the animal’s wholesale slaughter. Relatively lax rules regulating elephant hunting persisted up through the middle 20^th century, leading to the species near extinction.

Because of its relative isolation, the community of Ukara has never been large enough to sustain an elite. As a result of this, the community has operated in a decentralized fashion with there being a high degree of specialization among residents promoting mutual interdependence. As with the communities that developed in the Niger River Valley, Ukara’s decentralized character promoted a relatively non-violent society based on decision making by consensus.

9. The Roots of African Political Arrangements

In many other regions in sub-Saharan Africa, communities also resisted the development of hierarchies and wealthy elites by promoting the sharing of resources and by investing in the oldest members of the community significant, if not exclusive, political power. The so-called age-grade system has dominated the political culture of much of sub-Saharan Africa. An example of a society still based on the age-grade system is the Maasai people of East Africa. The gerontocracy (leadership by elderly persons) that evolved imposed civil order in a difficult environment, but, naturally, was very conservative and resisted innovation. The effectiveness of the age-grade system was seriously undermined in the colonial period by the European states, which sought out local representatives on whom they could rely to implement colonial policy. Frequently, these local representatives became sources of political power that competed with the gerontocracies for influence.

The age-grade system, generally, encouraged cooperative behavior and a decision-making process based on consensus. Some scholars have argued that the age-grade system was well adapted to Africa’s difficult environmental conditions by discouraging violent conflict that would destroy life-sustaining human and material resources.

10. Trade and The Growth of Elites

Archeological evidence shows that merchants and market places did not become part of village life until the 6th century A.D. Prior to this development, however, there is evidence of a trade in certain goods. Foreign goods traveled quite frequently from village to village in a sort of relay system. It was an economy based on barter (the exchange of goods). Of the valuable resources that traveled long distances from their points of origin, salt was probably the most significant in breaking down what had been the sub-Saharan region’s economic self-sufficiency. Difficult to transport in large quantities, salt became a highly sought after commodity. The salt trade became extensive in Africa, but most profoundly affected the fringes of the Saharan desert where the largest deposits of salt were found. The main problem confronted by traders was the vast distances between the Sahara and the emerging sub-Saharan trading centers. In this respect, the arrival of the camel in the Middle East from North America almost 2 million years ago was a significant historical event. From that time, the camel evolved into one of the world’s most resilient creatures, capable of travelling long distances while carrying twice as much as an ox at twice the speed. The camel also evolved into a creature perfectly adapted to its desert environment, being able to go up to nine days without water. Camels were first domesticated in Southern Arabia about 4,000 years ago. At the time the Sabian Kingdom was at the height of its power (around 800 B.C.), the camel had already replaced the ox-drawn cart as the principal mode of transportation throughout the Middle East.

Timbuktu, the present day capital of Mali, has been one of the most important salt trading centers since the 8th Century A.D. The salt trade principally has followed the Niger River water route, which links Timbuktu to Djenne, about 250 miles upstream, and to Gao, about 250 miles downstream. It is likely that the development of Jenne-Jeno (which is located near Djenne) in the Niger River Valley was in large part due to the salt trade. Salt was frequently exchanged for ivory. As trade expanded, African communities frequently became stratified, with more resources falling under the control of a smaller number of individuals who became a ruling elite. An exception to this development was the Igbo people (who live in southeastern Nigeria). In spite of expanding trade, no monarchy emerged and resources remained relatively more evenly distributed among the Igbo population.

In general, however, increased foreign contact and trade effected the rise of social and political elites. The growing importance of foreign commodities to local populations from the 8^th century A.D. gradually caused to emerge a class of local representatives who interacted with the predominately Arab traders of the time. The principal medium of exchange for foreign goods was gold to which the Africans, ironically, attached little value. Over time, the increasing demand for African commodities coupled with the increasing demand by Africans for foreign goods led to frequent labor shortages.

11. Slavery

Around 2000 years ago, the increased needs of production plus labor shortages created an economic environment ripe for the development of the most coercive of social institutions -- slavery. Indigenous slavery, however, came to occupy a complex position in a complex pattern of relationships. It was part of an array of obligations and counter-obligations and was an institution one often entered into voluntarily, as a way of avoiding abject poverty and starvation. Because the use of slaves made it possible to keep the costs of labor extremely low, it persisted even in periods where there was substantial population growth.

While foreign trade caused Africans to divert resources to the production of goods for sale in the market place, Africans substantially increased their food production capacities, which set the stage for significant population growth. One important innovation was the cultivation of bananas and plantains that had been introduced to Africa about 2000 years ago. The second factor was the spread of cattle herding, which became not only an important source of food, but a source of wealth for an emerging class of politically powerful herders.

12. Foreign Influences

Prior to European involvement in Africa, Arabs engaged in a significant amount of trade. Chinese traders also established relations with officials in several African regions. European trade, however, was the most profound and, in the end result, the most destabilizing.

By the 15th century, Madeira, in the Canary Islands, off the west coast of present day Morocco, was producing a commodity that was to become a European taste sensation -- sugar. The Portuguese Empire of Henry the Navigator spearheaded the effort to secure the labor necessary to cultivate sugar. Slavery provided the vehicle for securing this labor at minimal cost. Ironically, however, Europeans originally did not use slaves as a source of labor but as a medium of exchange for African goods, particularly spices, pepper and gold. Between 1500 and 1535, the slave trade increased in importance and volume. The coasts of what are today the nations of Benin and Nigeria -- the center of the West African slave trade -- notoriously became known as the Slave Coast.

By 1500, Africa was moving along European lines of centralization. Centralization, however, was encouraged not only by European influence on trade patterns, but also the development of cattle-owning societies, which encouraged land and water resources increasingly to come under the control of a cattle owning elite. The Mali, Benin, Yoruba, Asante, Zimbabwe, Zulu, and Buganda peoples all developed hierarchical states dominated by a class of wealthy cattle owners.

The 16th century A.D. proved a watershed in African history that was marked by a break from previous African patterns of social organization that resisted hierarchies. For example, African Kings were frequently chosen by councils; there was no requirement that the royal office be passed on to the King's oldest son, i.e. primogeniture. This practice was profoundly affected by contact with the European powers, which expected to interrelate with hereditary monarchies along European lines. In fact, Europeans quite frequently referred to cooperative leaders as "kings" and provided them not only the trappings of kingship, but military support.

Reinforcing the europeanization of Africa was Christianity and its vanguard force – the missionary movement, which sought to "civilize" African communities.

The disruptive influence of europeanization is best illustrated by what happened to the Kongo people who lived south of the Congo River in West Africa in the 15th century.

13. The Kongo Kingdom

As a result of European influence, the ruling elite of the Kongo were gradually converted to Christianity and adopted the trappings of a European type monarchy. The first Kongo monarch was Nzinga Mbemba, who was baptized Afonso, and, in 1491, assumed the throne as King Afonso I. Afonso ruled as a devout Christian. He also used the support of Portuguese mercenaries to expand his kingdom. The expansion redounded to the benefit of the Portuguese, themselves, whose military operations provided opportunities to capture slaves whom they sold to sugar plantations that were established on the island of Sao Tome, off the coast of Gabon in West Africa. The sugar plantations of Sao Tome were established in the 1490's. During the 1500's, the island became the largest supplier of sugar to Europe. Slaves were acquired through barter or as the result of raiding beyond the Kongo Kingdom; but by 1526, slaves were being shipped to Sao Tome from the Kongo Kingdom, itself. To Alfonso’s dismay, even some of his own relatives were enslaved. Afonso wrote letters to the King of Portugal complaining about the ill treatment of his subjects at the hands of the Portuguese slave traders. These concerns were, however, ignored by the King of Portugal. The prevailing European view was that the slave trade was, in fact, promoted by the Africans, themselves, who, recognizing that they had little else of value to sell, sold the bodies of their own people.

14. The Atlantic Slave Trade

By the 16th century, Portuguese traders were purchasing 500 to 600 slaves a year. By the 1540's, slaves were being exchanged for manufactured goods. Slaves were then traded in Brazil and the Caribbean for sugar that was sold on the lucrative European market. A hundred years later, the Dutch assumed the principal role of supplying slaves to the sugar plantations in the Caribbean--Barbados, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. In the 17th century, the British became the predominant international commercial power, supplanting the Dutch. In 1672, the Royal Africa Company was organized to take advantage of the lucrative slave and sugar trades.

The expansion of the slave trade in the 17th century had dramatic affects on African economic development. Over the course of that century, the slave trade deprived Africa of 11 million able-bodied persons. The indigenous slave trade that provided at least a measure of benefit to all parties in a labor scarce environment gave way to an Atlantic trade that principally benefited the traders.

In the beginning, slaves were traded for manufactured goods and horses. The slave economy, however, grew in sophistication, becoming based on the cowry shell as the medium for exchange. Africans sold slaves in return for cowry shells that, in turn, were used to purchase European goods -- principally, luxury goods, guns, and gunpowder. The cowry shell was durable, portable and difficult to counterfeit. In and of itself, however, it had no practical value. The cowry shell economy promoted among Africans a thirst for foreign goods and the development of elites whose high degree of consumption could only be financed by selling more Africans into slavery. Guns and gunpowder proved particularly destabilizing to African political and social organizations by encouraging armed factions to engage in slave raiding, rebellion and war.

Somewhat mitigating the effects of the slave trade on the supply of labor, was the introduction by the Portuguese of two significant new crops in the 15^th century A.D. -- maize and cassava. These crops significantly expanded the potential for food production, promoting population growth. In the end result, however, the combination of the slave and foreign trades, which promoted the development of an export-based economy and a high demand for foreign goods, caused a net loss to the continent in terms of population and economic self-sufficiency.

The beginning of the end of the slave trade was the 1798 slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) in which the slave community overthrew the French colonial government. The slave trade was subsequently abolished in a number of European states, including in the United States in 1808. In America, the abolition of the slave trade gave rise to a movement to re-colonize Africa with former American slaves. The movement, spearheaded by the American Colonization Society, founded the colony of Liberia in the 1820’s. Liberia’s present-day capital, Monrovia, was named after James Monroe, the American President at the time the colony was founded. The internal African slave trade, however, continued. The African economy was now well healed to the effort of producing products that were in demand in the European commercial economy, e.g. palm oil, timber, gold, ivory, rubber, wax, gum arabic, sugar, cocoa and tea.

In Africa, itself, using slaves dramatically lowered the costs of production, making it impossible for small farmers to compete in the growing European market. At the same time, slave labor encouraged the development of foreign trade at the expense of internal trade and self-sufficiency. In addition to europeanization, drought, famine and disease conspired to promote the indigenous form of slavery. The drought of 1784 to 1795 was particularly catastrophic, leading to massive migrations of persons who fed the internal slave economy.

The difficult conditions plaguing Central Africa were not, however, characteristic of conditions elsewhere. The communities of Southern Africa, most notably the Zulu people, developed highly aggressive and centralized states based principally on cattle herding, and supported by an increased level of food production resulting from the cultivation of maize and cassava.

15. The Settlers

The Dutch founded permanent settlements in Southern Africa in the mid-17th century which increasingly came into more direct contact with the nearby African communities that depended on the use of vast areas of grasslands for their herds. The most significant early conflict was with the Khoisan people. At the head of Dutch settlement were the trekboers (or Boers), Dutch farmers who aggressively founded settlements in the interior of Southern Africa. To support this expansion, the Boers established commando units and systematically eliminated or enslaved the adjacent Khoisan population. The Bushman Wars of the 18th century involved massacres of Africans on a significant scale and ultimately led to the subjugation of the Khoisan population. Integrated into the Dutch colonial system, this servile population became known in the 19th century as "cape coloureds." Similar conflicts occurred between the Boers and the Xhosa people in the late 18th century in the Frontier Wars.

Conflict with the Xhosa escalated with the growing importance of wool to the European economy, and the growing significance of shepherding in Southern Africa for the international wool market. The need for more grazing land necessarily brought the Dutch into more frequent conflict with the Xhosa population. Conflict was also encouraged by drought that created pressure on the Xhosa to move southward in the direction of Boer settlement. The Boers also came into conflict with the emerging Zulu Kingdom, whose population was fed by refugees escaping the slave trade and famine in Central Africa.

16. Emerging Conflicts

The slave rebellion in Saint Domingue in the late 18th century disrupted the sugar trade, encouraging the development of a massive sugar producing capacity in Brazil, which did not abolish the slave trade until the 1830’s. The expansion of the plantation economy in Brazil significantly increased the demand for African slaves. Fear of enslavement, in turn, encouraged massive population shifts. The Zulu state expanded as a result of an influx of refugees. In addition to the demands of the sugar economy, white settlers also engaged in slave raids to secure for themselves sufficient labor for agriculture. The Boer community’s need for labor created pressure on the local government to pass ordinances that encouraged settlers to take military action to enslave local populations and, thereby, secure "free" labor.

17. The Afrikaners

With British rule in South Africa firmly established by the 19th century, the stage was set for conflict with the Afrikaans speaking Boer population. Early on, the most significant dispute concerned the abolition of slavery by the British dominated Cape Colony government in 1834. With the abolition of slavery, the Boers faced not only losing the legal right to secure and maintain slave labor, but also faced losing a significant reserve of labor that they considered critical to their economic well being. The abolition of slavery was the critical impetus for many Boer communities to migrate further into the interior of the country. This migration inevitably led to tensions with the Zulu Kingdom over rights to land and other resources. Conflicting claims over territory culminated in the legendary Battle of Blood River in December, 1838, at which Boer commandos decisively defeated a Zulu force.

Following the Battle of Blood River, the Boers began to establish settlements that became the basis for independent republics. The British formally recognized the Republic of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State in 1852 and 1854, respectively, creating an uneasy peace. This state of affairs, however, was not destined to be permanent. In 1867, major diamond deposits were discovered on Boer territory that dramatically changed the situation. In fact, the discovery of diamonds in South Africa was a watershed in the relationship between the British colonial authorities and the Boer population. It also became a source for the transformation of Southern Africa in political and economic terms.

18. Diamonds

The Kimberly diamond mine in South Africa has yielded more diamonds than any other diamond mine in the world. In the 19^th century, mining was labor intensive and labor, generally, was hard to come by. Initially, labor shortages substantially benefited workers who were in high demand. Rising labor costs, however, led to regulations that began restricting the mobility of labor. These labor controls provided the basis for the racially discriminatory system that became the foundation for apartheid South Africa a generation later. Labor was channeled through a centralized registry that provided passes to prospective laborers, restricting their movement. The so-called Pass Laws dramatically impacted upon the fortunes of workers who could no longer command more than subsistence wages.

While the labor market was becoming more rigid, large industrial enterprises like De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, founded by Cecil Rhodes and others, put out of business numerous independent diamond producers, creating a monopoly position for themselves. This intensified the effort to increase control of the labor supply to keep down labor costs. To the misfortune of local populations, this effort did not stop with the Pass Laws but escalated into forcing the local African population into becoming dependant on the mines for its livelihood. Legislation passed by the colonial government in 1879 required employers to house and feed their workers. This was the origin of what became a conscious effort to segregate the races. The policy at the time was called "localization."

Accompanying localization was the repeal of basic legal rights. For example, concern that workers in the mines at Kimberly were stealing diamonds led to the establishment of the Select Committee to Investigate Illicit Diamond Buying. The Select Committee’s activities were promoted by the Diamond Trade Act of 1882, which abolished a fundamental principal of British justice -- the presumption of innocence. Anyone found with diamonds was presumed guilty of theft unless he could prove otherwise.

Localization compelled workers to live in compounds and pay for food and other commodities at company owned stores often at inflated prices. The result of these policies was to keep workers poor and perpetually dependent for their livelihoods on the mines. The discovery of huge gold deposits in Witwatersrand, South Africa in 1885 encouraged more widespread use of this system of labor control.

19. The African Scramble

At the forefront of the European scramble for African colonies in the late 19th century was King Leopold II of Belgium, who did more than anyone else to create the international conditions for massive intervention into the affairs of African communities. By virtue of his determination and guile, Leopold was able to assume absolute personal control over what became known as the Congo Free State.

At the time Leopold was turning his sights on Africa, the activities of the famous British adventurer, David Livingston, were being publicized by the journalist Henry Morton Stanley, who is said to have made the now legendary remark upon finding Livingston at Ujiji, on the shores of Lake Taganyika in 1871-- "Doctor Livingston, I presume." Livingston's exploits inspired several expeditions to Africa sponsored by the British Royal Geographical Society.

The Geographical Conference of 1876 was held in Brussels, Belgium, at Leopold's palace, and provided him a significant opportunity to convince the other European representatives of his selfless motive to develop a prosperous and "civilized" Africa. Of great importance was Leopold's success at the conference in establishing the International African Association that was given the tasks of financing, staffing and managing trading posts established across Central Africa. It was Leopold's example of aggressively establishing commercial posts on the continent that set into motion what historians have come to describe as the African scramble. At the vanguard of Leopold's personal effort to lay claim to much of Central Africa was Henry Morton Stanley, himself, who became Leopold's agent.

Leopold envisioned the Congo as a corporate enterprise with tremendous wealth producing potential. Evidence of Leopold's evolving commercial organization and his use of the International African Association as a veil for his ambitions leaked to the French, who had their own ambitions in the region. In 1880, France dispatched an expedition to Gabon under the leadership of the Italian born Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. It was Brazza who staked out France’s claim over the region that became the Congo Republic. The capital city of the Congo Republic continues to be called Brazzaville.

The French initiatives in Central Africa underscored a potential legal challenge to Leopold's territorial claims in the Congo--that international law in his day did not recognize non-state actors like his evolving African Association as having any rights to sovereign recognition. This situation directly threatened Leopold’s ability to enforce his land claims as against the claims of state-actors like France.

In response to this challenge, Leopold took several steps to obtain diplomatic recognition for his enterprise. He dissolved Belgium’s International African Association and established the International Association of the Congo, virtually incorporating his own personal Congo venture. He then turned for assistance to a close friend of his in the American government -- the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, General Henry S. Sanford. Sanford was critical to Leopold's campaign to obtain international recognition of his Belgian enterprise. In 1884, the U.S. Congress passed resolutions officially recognizing the flag of Leopold's Association in the manner of a flag of a friendly government.

Leopold also came to an understanding with France by promising it the first option on Association territories if he decided at any future time to divest himself of them. Convinced that Leopold's Congo holdings would not be economically viable, France agreed to recognize his rights in the region and respect the claims of his Association. Neutralizing France, Leopold more easily convinced Otto von Bismarck, the German Chancellor, to recognize his claims. This recognition was officially given in 1884. Britain and Portugal remained to be convinced. The key became German support. Bismarck saw the Congo Association as a guarantor of free trade in the region. Meanwhile, Britain needed Germany's support against French claims in North Africa, in particular, the lower Niger and in Egypt. In the end result, Germany prevailed on Britain to sign a treaty with the International Association of the Congo recognizing the sovereignty of that Association over its Congo territory. The Berlin Act of 1885, which followed this diplomatic maneuvering, provided the basis for a period of intense activity by state chartered companies intent on exploiting Africa’s natural resources.

With sovereign recognition secured, Leopold turned to the task of finding financial support for his colony. The prospects were dim. The Congo Free State was on the verge of economic collapse. It was, therefore, nothing short of a miracle of fate that Leopold’s dream of a personal empire in the heart of Africa coincided with the industrial revolution and industry’s demand for rubber, which, up to that time, had been exported from the Congo Free State in minimal quantities. As a result of the developed world’s increasing demand for rubber, the Congo Free State began showing a profit in 1890.

Demand, however, exploded in the wake of one of the most important technological developments of the time – the invention of the pneumatic tire by Edouard Micheline in 1891. Ironically, Leopold’s profits were not reinvested in the Congo, but went to finance grandiose building schemes in Belgium.

Wild rubber was the Congo’s principal export to the industrialized world. As the demand for rubber intensified, highly coercive labor practices were employed. These practices were documented in connection with the activities of one of the Congo's most notorious companies -- the Anglo-Belgian India-Rubber Company.

Overexploitation of the rubber crop created pressures on production costs. In order to meet production targets, agents of the rubber company resorted to senseless murder, massacre, and mutilation in order to intimidate local populations into compliance. From 1890 on, evidence of atrocities committed in the Belgian Congo mounted. At the forefront of the movement opposing Leopold’s activities in the Congo Free State was Edmund Morel who headed the Congo Reform Association. The purpose of this Association was to encourage international condemnation of Leopold’s activities in the Congo Free State and to have the international community impose sanctions on his Association and related companies. Morel’s movement was the first international human rights initiative of its kind.

Conditions in the Congo Free State led to a dramatic depopulation from the 1890's to 1911. A census taken showed a declined in population from as many as 20 million to 8.5 million. Roger Casement, British Consul to the Congo Free State -- who traveled through regions not reached by official census takers, was horrified at the acts of cruelty that he witnessed. The ultimate undoing of Leopold's enterprise, however, was not Morel’s missionary zeal or Casement’s critical eyewitness accounts, but the advent of the camera. Pictures taken of horrific scenes of brutality committed by company agents were distributed to the press. It proved to be the beginning of the end of Leopold's personal empire in the Congo. The object of substantial international criticism, Leopold, ultimately, relinquished control of his Association to the Belgium government, which formally annexed the Congo territory in November 1908.

The role of companies in exploiting resources was not limited to that of Belgian rubber companies. British royal chartered companies, like Cecil Rhodes’ South Africa Company, readily signed treaties obtaining concessions to exploit resources in exchange for investment and development. Almost universally, these companies did not fulfill their obligations, leaving the native leaders little recourse and with a weakening political hold over their communities. Chiefs, who were frequently elevated to the status of kings by the companies and their colonial governments, often found their status degraded as their bargaining position weakened.

The results of the African scramble took the dramatic form of a fractured continent with unstable boundaries and populations often divided along ethnic lines. Surveys of today’s Africa show that national boundaries cut across 177 ethnic areas. Resources are also distributed unevenly. Today, fifteen African states are landlocked. Numerous states have multiple borders. The Congo and the Sudan, for example, each border nine other African nations. In the 19^th century, it was thought that one answer to fragmentation was the introduction of a transcontinental railroad system, which was, in fact, built. As it turned out, however, the railroad only accelerated the draining of resources from the interior of the continent to the coastal regions, encouraging population shifts and the further fragmentation of African society.

20. Resistance to Colonialism

In spite of the mounting oppression of African populations as a result of the African scramble and experiments like Leopold’s Congo Free State, resistance to colonial rule was unsuccessful as a result of several factors. First, technological advances such as the maxim machine gun patented in 1884, enabled relatively small military contingents of Europeans to crush armed resistance at limited cost of European life. Second, there were also environmental pressures that continually made survival, and not the overthrow of colonial regimes, the priority among most Africans. An important factor weakening African resistance was the spread of small pox and other diseases, ironically, introduced by the Europeans, themselves. Small pox, to which the African population had little immunity, often decimated villages, leaving survivors unable to care for themselves.

The most devastating epidemic of all, however, was introduced through tainted livestock imported by Italian troops stationed in East Africa. The introduction of the rinderpest virus resulted in the greatest natural calamity to befall Africa in its people’s history, and one without parallel anywhere.

Brought to Africa in 1889, the virus rapidly spread through herds that had no immunity to the disease. Before long, cattle, sheep, goats and many species of wild animals died in massive numbers. The pastoralist aristocrats of Africa were completely ruined. Herds numbering tens of thousands were reduced often to no more than a dozen animals. Deprived of their principal source of food, African populations began to die. One traveler estimated that in 1891 two-thirds of the Massai population starved to death. With the death of massive numbers of cattle, grasslands quickly became woodlands extending the territory of the tsetse fly when cattle populations began recovering. For the human population, problems of food production and plague became endemic, causing massive population shifts.

21. The Boer War

The Boer War in South Africa had a substantial impact on modern warfare and the politics of Africa. The War had its origin in Britain's attempt to assert control over gold mines in Boer territory. The diplomatic situation worsened in the aftermath of Cecil Rhodes’ failed attempt to provoke an overthrow of the government of the Transvaal – a Boer Republic in the interior of South Africa. The War began in 1899 and was expected to last only a few months, but, in fact, lasted until May 1902. 440,000 British troops were mobilized and 22,000 died. The Boers mobilized 88,000 and experienced 7,000 losses. A central feature of British military policy that was to have a significant impact on modern warfare was Lord Kitchener's scorched earth tactic, which led to the wholesale destruction of homes, farmland and livestock, and the internment of Boer communities in concentration camps. The conditions in the camps in which over 111,000 were interred were appalling, resulting in the death of almost 28,000 Boers. Blacks did not escape these conditions. Indeed, more of them were incarcerated in concentration camps than Whites. The Peace of Vereeniging ended the war and provided the Boer population with self-government, but this did not tangibly improve the condition of South Africa’s black population.

22. Rebellion and the End of Colonialism

In spite of the obstacles to resistance, African populations eventually were able to mount rebellions. Following the Boer War, the Maji-Maji rebellion of 1905 in German Southwest Africa (present–day Namibia) was yet another sign that colonial authority was cracking. The basis for the rebellion were economic policies that imposed oppressive requirements for cotton production on native communities, which became poorer as more land became devoted to cotton cultivation at the expense of life sustaining crops. The scale of the rebellion surprised the Germans. Over 20 ethnic groups were involved throughout the central and southern region of the colony. Unable to crush the rebellion militarily, the Germans resorted to Kitchener’s scorched-earth policy by destroying farmland, crops and cattle. The result was a devastating famine that took the lives of tens of thousands. Although official reports indicate that 75,000 people died in the crushing of the rebellion, unofficial statistics suggest that between 250,000 to 300,000 may, in fact, have been killed.

23. The First World War

The First World War (1914-1918) refashioned large parts of Southwest and Southeast Africa as the Germans surrendered their authority to the allied powers. Africans also played an active role in the War. A survey of World War I concluded, for example, that 2.5 million Africans were in some way involved in the war effort. The aftermath of the War brought relative stability. Instead of the myriad of kingdoms that existed in 19th century Africa, there were now 50 or so states with fixed boundaries. The post-war period was also one in which colonial governments began to take on more responsibility for their colonies’ development. Colonial administrations developed codes of laws to impose order in relations among their African subjects. The basis for determining legal rules was, however, drawn from European conceptions of customary African law. Ironically, the colonial codes allowed for little change in African custom, making it difficult for the law to adapt to new economic and political circumstances. Even today, legal institutions of many African countries are only at the most formative stage of development.

24. Tribalism

Of all the ideas that left their imprint on post-colonial Africa, the most pernicious was tribalism. Although African communities developed unique characteristics, in general, they had more in common with one another than there were substantive differences. For example, the languages of the Xhosa and Zulu peoples are substantially similar; so are their belief and family systems. In fact, Zulu ethnic consciousness did not begin evolving until the 1870's as a consequence of European contact. As exemplified by the Zulu, ethnic nationalism (tribalism) was not rooted in the ancient African past, but emerged in the more modern colonial period. Reader comments that tribalism has been identified with the efforts of the colonial administrations to single out native communities with whom they could ally to reinforce colonial authority. This process included identifying certain persons as tribal chiefs with whom the colonial powers could deal and ascribing racial and cultural characteristics to themselves and their communities, oftentimes, on a weak basis. In fact, many of the distinctions that were made were based on popular racial theories that equated certain physical characteristics with intelligence and/or physical prowess. In short, the "tribe," as we have come to understand the term today, was the product of the European, not the African imagination. The destructiveness of tribalism is illustrated in contemporary times by the genocidal struggle that has unfolded between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples of Central Africa.

The German colonial government favored the Tutsi as collaborators in its effort to administer the colony, which covered a territory known as Ruanda-Urundi (the modern nations of Rwanda and Burundi in Central Africa). The German, and later the Belgian colonial authorities, gave the Tutsis significant political and economic power over their Hutu neighbors. Anthropologists have noted that the two groups are similar both physically and culturally. But this fact did not deter the effort to make distinctions, even if they were completely arbitrary. In 1926, the Belgian authorities introduced the identity card, which classified holders into ethnic categories. Where ethnic classification was impossible, however, it was made arbitrarily in accordance with the number of cattle an individual had; over a certain number and he was Tutsi, under a certain number and he was Hutu.

25. The Emerging Elite

Following the war, educational opportunities were provided to African young people that led to a sustained migration from the countryside to the urban centers. Labor that was already in short supply in the rural regions became even scarcer.

Education provided Africa’s young elite with opportunities to see the world and assess other cultures and political systems -- but often at a price. Paradoxically, many young, educated Africans became virtually strangers in their own land. Often educated abroad, they lost familiarity with village life and the challenges posed by Africa’s unique environmental conditions. At the same time, the young and educated took to heart what they had seen abroad and the ideas to which they were introduced. Socialism was one idea that profoundly influenced this generation. The other idea was that of national self-determination, which motivated African leaders to found movements in the various colonies dedicated to achieving independence from the colonial powers.

The emergence of an elite supporting independence coincided with the emergence of the Soviet Union as an increasingly influential world power. Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), Hastings Banda (Malawi), Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Leopold Senghor (Senegal), who came to play major roles in their respective nation’s independence movements, were all educated abroad and exposed in the 1920’s and 1930’s to Soviet communist ideology.

Independence, however, did not wipe the slate clean. No sooner was it achieved than many newly founded states broke down along ethnic lines. All politics became local, leaving national issues inadequately addressed. The Hutu-Tutsi conflict, meanwhile, was left to fester into genocidal conflict.

26. World War II

The Second World War involved Africans on numerous levels. Africans participated in the fighting. The mineral wealth of Africa was exploited to fuel the military industrial complex of the allies. Following the invasion of Belgium by Nazi Germany, the Belgium government in exile established its headquarters in the Congo. Significant to the future of Africa, the allies made commitments to promote self-determination after the war. This commitment was enshrined in the Atlantic Charter, entered into by the President of the United States, Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt and Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It was also a time for enthusiasm among Africa's new leaders who supported independence. The Sixth Pan-African Congress, convened in Manchester, England in 1945, passed a resolution expressing the assembly’s ambition to achieve self-determination for African peoples.

27. The Movement Toward Independence

South Africa became independent in 1910. Independence, however, did not benefit the black African population, transferring power from a colonial elite to a class of settlers of European stock. Only white men were accorded political rights. In fact, the political situation for black South Africans deteriorated following the election of the Nationalist Party under D.F. Malan in 1948. The new government systematically abolished any possibility of further reform by introducing the policy of Apartheid (from the Africaans word meaning "separateness").

In general, the British envisioned long-term transition to self-government in Africa. Rioting in Accra, Ghana in West Africa (also known as the Gold Coast), however, caused the Colonial office to shorten the time frame for elections. In 1951, Kwame Nkrumah of the Convention Peoples Party was elected President. Nkrumah’s party espoused a radical Marxist doctrine that was passionately anti-imperialist. His election created expectations that sparked civil unrest in many parts of the continent. In British Kenya, the unrest spawned the Mau Mau rebellion in 1952, which took 4 years to suppress. Although the rebellion resulted in few deaths, it caused the British to accelerate the pace of their decolonization program.

The French colonies of West Africa were encouraged to develop local assemblies that would be linked to the French Parliament. The French program to co-opt African leaders and representative government was set forth in the Brazzaville Conference of 1944 at which France sought to modernize its relationship with French speaking Africa. Soon, however, the African leaders in French West Africa began to view their role in the French Parliament as ineffective. They represented only a very small minority among legislators who were predominantly interested in issues affecting the mother country.

While France and Britain struggled to prepare their colonial populations for independence, the Belgians did virtually nothing to prepare theirs. The results were catastrophic.

28. The Congo Crisis

By 1959, the Belgian Congo was one of the wealthiest colonies in Africa. The key to the Belgian’s apparent success was an alliance between and among officials, churches and businesses. This triade, however, ultimately, could not control the rising tied of nationalism, which in 1959 erupted in rioting in Leopoldville, the colony’s capital, hastening Belgium’s efforts to arrange for quick elections.

The person who spearheaded the independence effort was Patrice Lumumba. By November 1959, 53 parties were officially registered, the most significant being Lumumba's Mouvement National Congolais. Moise Tshombe, a local leader in Katanga province, forged his own party advocating the secession of Katanga from the rest of the Congo. Lumumba was elected as the Congo's first Prime Minister but proved to be an erratic personality. For example, on the day marking the formal independence of the Congo, he soured relations with Belgium by issuing a stinging oration against the Belgian King.

Lumumba also replaced the Belgian officer corp., appointing as his chief of staff, Joseph Mobutu. The sudden removal of authority and break down of army discipline unleashed mutinies at military barracks across the region. Taking advantage of the unrest, Moise Tshombe declared the independence of the province of Katanga. Belgian forces assisted Tshombe in expelling Congolese troops on the pretext of protecting Belgian interests.

Believing that Belgium was using the unrest to reassert authority over the region, Lumumba cut off diplomatic relations with that country and requested assistance from the United Nations (UN). The UN requested Belgium to withdraw and sent "technical assistance" to the Congo. At its height, the UN presence involved 19,000 UN troops. UN troops were deployed in five of the six Congo provinces. The sixth -- Katanga -- insisted on the continued presence of Belgian forces. Efforts by UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskold to negotiate a settlement were unsuccessful. Lumumba accused the UN of being a Belgian puppet. The Soviet Union, likewise, accused Hammarskold of doing Belgium's bidding. By August 1960, The Soviet Union was shipping food supplies to the Congo as well as technicians. The United States, which had committed itself to resisting Soviet advances anywhere in the world, viewed developments with increasing alarm.

Eventually, the Congolese President, Joseph Kasavubu, removed Lumumba from power, but the situation by that time had deteriorated, with some parts of the country still supporting Lumumba and other parts supporting other political figures like Tshombe. It was in the midst of this chaotic situation that Mobuto, the head of the armed forces, asserted control, ordering the closure of the Soviet and Czech embassies and expelling eastern bloc personnel. By the end of 1960, Mobuto had reestablished constitutional government, the UN withdrew, and Katanga abandoned its bid for independence. Subsequent efforts, however, to form a national government under Tshombe, led to Mobuto's second coup in 1965, that permanently installed him as the head of a regime with a well disciplined 25,000 man force.

29. Instability in Post-Colonial Africa

There were subsequent efforts among Africa's new leaders to establish a unifying principle that could bind the continent’s political leadership together. In May 1963, 30 nations met in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to establish the Organization for African Unity (OAU). Julian Nyerere, leader of newly independent Tanzania, cautioned leaders that conflict among states posed the greatest threat to Africa's future. What became, however, even more threatening to Africa’s stability was the breakdown of the regimes themselves.

The assassination of Sylvanus Olympio of Togo is counted as black Africa's first coup d'etat. The regime that replaced him was not allowed by the OAU to be admitted as a member of that organization at its inaugural conference. The coup in Togo was the beginning of a long period of internal struggles and political turmoil. More than 70 coups occurred in 32 nations from the assassination of Olympio of Togo to the overthrow of Mobutu of Zaire (today the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1997.

30. Nigerian Instability

The problem of maintaining internal stability is exemplified by Nigeria's own modern history that shows how ethnic allegiances can be exploited at the expense of national unity. The internal struggles between different regions of the country culminated in May 1967 with the attempt by the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria to secede from the Nigerian federation. They called their new nation Biafra. The Biafrin Civil War lasted until 1970 and cost almost one million lives. It was concluded, however, in an unusual atmosphere of national reconciliation. Amnesties were offered to both sides; Igbo civil servants returned to their jobs; property was restored; no reparations were demanded; and no metals were awarded. As one observer has written, "in the history of warfare, there can rarely have been such a bloodless end and such a merciful aftermath."

The reorganization of the country required the abandonment of the three regions based administration, increasing the number of administrative units. In the 1970's and 1980's, over thirty states vied for control over the wealth of the country, that was increasingly based on oil exports to the international market.

As with many African countries, however, the tremendous potential wealth of Nigeria was offset by growing underdevelopment in the agricultural sector. As the international demand for oil increased, Nigeria’s currency was allowed to become over-valued, resulting in the collapse of the demand for the country’s cash-crop exports. Meanwhile, local industry was undermined by cheap imports. As a result, the gross domestic product, the sum of the value of all the goods and services produced in the domestic economy, slowed to 1.7% per year in the 1970's and even lower in the 1980's. For most of this period, Nigeria was ruled by the military.

In general, by 1989, only 7 of the 45 states in sub-Saharan Africa preserved any democratic institutions. States quite frequently succumbed to military rule like in Nigeria, or one-party states like in Kenya, the Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe. Only Botswana, independent since 1966, rich in diamonds and small in population, has held democratic elections on a regular basis. Significantly, Botswana's population is almost entirely from a single ethnic group, the Tswana.

31. Rwandan Instability

Rwanda has been at the other extreme -- poor in mineral resources and fractured severely along ethnic lines. With the rising tide of Hutu nationalism in the late 1950’s, culminating in a Hutu uprising in 1960, the Belgian authorities quickly reversed long-standing policy favoring the Tutsi minority. The Hutu immediately began persecuting the Tutsi population. The UN called on the Belgians to initiate a program of "national conciliation." A National Reconciliation Conference was convened in Belgium but was inconclusive. Meanwhile, the Belgians pressed for national elections. Elections held under UN supervision in 1961 confirmed the dominant role of the Hutu. The dynamics of Rwandan independence provided little hope for reconciliation. Independence was achieved not on the basis of ejecting a colonial power, but on overthrowing a political system that favored the interests of one ethnic minority over those of the ethnic majority. The regime of Gregoire Kayibanda was oppressive. To rally support, Kayabanda attempted to purge political and educational institutions of Tutsis. In 1973, the hatred and unrest generated by the so called "purification campaign" led to a coup by Major-General Habyarimana. The "Second Republic Regime," however, was no better and became increasingly oppressive and self-serving. The country was in economic collapse causing an exodus from the region. Tutsi leaders and opponents to the regime began organizing the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF). In 1990, with support from Uganda, the RPF launched an invasion of Rwanda, which was quickly defeated in part because of the role played by French and Belgian troops. The result of the RPF’s defeat was to intensify the Hutu regime’s persecution of its Tutsi minority and Hutus in the South of the country who opposed the regime. The RPF reorganized itself and by 1993 emerged as an effective guerrilla force. At this point, Habyarimana began negotiating with the RPF.

The Arusha Accords committed Rwanda to radical reforms including a power-sharing arrangement with the RPF. On April 6, 1994, Habyarimana was killed in a plane crash. Subsequently, Hutu extremists, who opposed the Accords, rampaged through the country, killing on a genocidal scale. The United Nations has estimate that within three months, over 500,000 Tutsi were killed. Other sources have estimated that over 850,000 may have been murdered. It has been found that the Tutsi genocide was planned at the very highest levels of government. Militias, with the support of persons at the village level, caused the killing to become widespread and brutal. With the country reduced to complete anarchy, the RPF was able to win political and military control of the government.

32. South Africa: A Ray of Hope

While conditions in Central Africa were deteriorating as a result of the Hutu-Tutsi rivalry, the forces of apartheid in South Africa were in retreat. While pressure from the international community and the opposition of the African National Congress eventually caused the regime of F.W. de Clerk to dismantle the Apartheid system, another motivating factor was simply that maintaining the system had become unaffordable. The three parliamentary chambers and the multiplicity of ministries that were established in the final years of the white minority government to appease the non-white South Africans who called for political reform imposed a tremendous financial strain on the state. International sanctions and disinvestment by foreign corporations and banks worsened conditions further. The abandonment of the apartheid policy was, therefore, as pragmatic as it was morally necessary.

The peaceful transition to power of the African National Congress led by Nelson Mandela was an event of historic importance. The elections of 1994 were a watershed, confirming not only the end of racist white rule, but illustrating that democracy could evolve in Africa even under the most divisive conditions. Whether the example of the South African transition to multi-racial democracy and its present effort to achieve national reconciliation portends wider changes in the political landscape of the African continent remains to be seen, but it certainly should offer the international community some reason for hope.

 

The foregoing abstract is a publication of the International Center for Law Trade and Diplomacy, Inc., Copyright 1999